ALLEGRO MICROSYSTEMS

Allegro Microsystems, Inc., operating under that name for the past decade, is the successor to Sprague Semiconductor Group, with 40 years combined experience in the semiconductor industry. With over 2,500 employees worldwide, Allegro is headquartered in Worcester, MA, where design, manufacturing, test, marketing and customer service are located in a 250,000 sq. ft. facility. The Company also has manufacturing plants in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and the Philippines, as well as sales, design and marketing offices in Scotland, UK, France and Argentina. Sales are balanced worldwide throughout North and South America, Europe, Japan and Asia-Pacific, Allegro is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanken Electric Company, Ltd., a billion dollar company who manufactures semiconductors, discretes, LEDs, and switch mode power supplies, with headquarters in Saitama, Japan. The two companies jointly develop and market leading-edge products in the areas of power management and motion control. This enables both organizations to fully utilize the company's worldwide strengths and resources for the benefit of the customers. Allegro is currently organized into two technology-defined groups. These groups are paving parallel paths of expansion, up-integration, and diversification by entering or broadening into markets with higher growth. The Sensor group produces Hall-effect sensors offering contactless switching for applications such as direction-detection, geartooth, linear, position, and speed sensing for automotive, industrial, consumer, and portable electronics. The IC group produces power ICs for motor drives, motor control and power interface. Allegro's ICs are used in office automation (particularly printers), industrial, automotive and portable electronics markets.